Imagine this: “After a full day of work, it’s time to go home to your family. What’s supposed to be only a few minutes of travel time, turns into two hours of you spending at least an hour just waiting to ride the jeepney and then another hour traversing the heavy Manila traffic. Upon arrival in your community, you walk through narrow alleyways surrounded by houses made up of rusty scrap metals for roofs and old thin plywood for walls, and sacks of garbage just lying on the side of the road. This is where you live.”
In 2020, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) estimated that 37% of the Philippines’ urban population lives in these slum areas. This translates to a staggering 19.68 million Filipinos living under a roof that lacks one or more of the following conditions: access to improved water, access to improved sanitation, sufficient living area, housing durability, and security of tenure.
In Metro Manila, UNICEF (2012) estimated at least 1.7 million children live in these slums and the majority of them are not attending school. It is important to note that although there are a lot of public schools in the Philippines that do not charge tuition fees, it’s not the only financial consideration of a family. School supplies and uniforms, as well as meals and transportation, are just some of the costs that fall on the children’s parents. For most families, these costs are still too expensive for them.
If a child is not given the chance to get an education, it will hinder their chances of succeeding in life and escaping the slums of Manila. Education for one child is the first step in breaking the cycle of poverty that keeps children in the slums.
How to Help
Every time we find 10 program partners willing to each donate USD 3,500 | AUD 5,000, we can launch another slum community project, enabling us to:
- Secure education for 200 out-of-school children, the majority of whom are girls, in targeted slum communities in Manila.
- Educate families about child safety and the value of education through organized community events and presentations.
- Mentor and support scholarship girls to become advocates for education in their community.
- Actively engage with key stakeholders and establish an active local volunteer network and community mothers group.
- Help progress the most marginalized of families in the slum through income generation and microfinance solutions.
Partner with us and you’ll receive:
- A six-monthly donor update about the program
- A six-monthly update on our overall work and impact in the Philippines
The Manila Slum Program – Captivating Philippines, is an approved aid and development project run in partnership with the Global Development Group (ABN 57 102 400 993), an Australian DFAT-approved NGO that carries out quality humanitarian projects and experts in long-term solutions to poverty. For more information about GDG, visit http://www.globaldevelopment.org.au
Donations for this program are tax-deductible in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, and Hong Kong.
Be a Part of the Solution
We need 10 people or families each willing to donate USD 3,500 | AUD 5,000 per year for 3 years to start in a new community. Help us provide education and support to children and families in Manila’s slum communities.
With your support, we can stop the “slum story” with this generation of children.
